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In Dev Update - Champs, Lore & More, Laura 'poisonpixxi' DeYoung, Head of IP Creative for Riot Games, elaborated on their new approach to narrative cohesiveness by ironing out any inconsistencies that have sprung up over the years. This article contains information that conflicts with this new narrative and will most likely be changed/moved in the following year(s). For further information on these changes, see Canonical inconsistencies |
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Universe
Singed is a 
Zaunite scientist of unmatched intellect, who has devoted his life to pushing the boundaries of knowledge—with no price, even his own sanity, too high to pay. Is there a method to his madness? His concoctions rarely fail, but it appears to many that Singed has lost all sense of humanity, leaving a toxic trail of misery and terror in his wake.
 | "You mustn’t die yet; I have far too much to learn from your fragile anatomy." — Singed |
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Background[]
Early Life[]
Singed began his life as an ordinary man in 
Piltover. As a child, he showed advanced intellect and curiosity being fascinated with the natural world. Eventually, he would be accepted into the University of Piltover, where he would conduct groundbreaking research. However, he was not recognized for this research, as he was a vocal critic of hextech, which his colleagues ridiculed him for. Eventually, he would lose all funding for his research and move to Zaun. There, he would make money from his inventions, which covered a wide range of uses. He would also begin to chemically augment himself, allowing him to work for days without needing to rest. His ingenuity gained him recognition in Zaun and soon attracted the attention of the 
Noxian empire.
Ionian Involvement[]
After years of doing smaller projects for the empire, Singed was approached by a Noxian military commander Emystan, who contracted the alchymist to help her break the stalemate of the war in 
Ionia. She gave him an offer that would bring him considerably more funds for his continued research.
Putting aside all other concerns, Singed poured all of his intellect, knowledge, and experience into the synthesis of this new weapon. The result of his efforts was an alchemical fire that was unstable and volatile. When it was finally unleashed in Ionia against the enemies of Noxus, it burned hot enough to fracture stone, and tainted the earth around it with dense, metallic poisons so completely that almost nothing could grow there. Even Emystan’s own allies were appalled, though not quite enough to name her and Singed as war criminals.
With the funds procured from this venture, Singed was able to considerably expand his Zaunite laboratory with new equipment.
Experimenting on Warwick[]
- Main article: Engineering the Nightmare
Singed kidnapped a gangster who he named Subject #1088, whom wanted to reform his life after retiring from crime. For years, he subjected him to many torturous experiments by augmenting chemtech upgrades on him while he was fully conscious, since Singed believed that pain was the catalyst to immortality. After implementing the chemtech pump onto Warwick's body, he turned hostile and started to attack Singed, but after the two struggled for a while Warwick succumbed to his injuries. Disappointed in his experiment's failure, Singed disposed of Warwick's body, but the latter came back to life as a chimera and escaped during the night. Singed woke up from the noise and found the damage inflicted upon his lab. He decided to find a new lab, but also start investigating Warwick so he could start the next phase of his experiment.
The Host[]
- Main article: The Host
Singed kidnapped two men named Hadri Spillwether and Palo, codenaming them Thinker and Breaker respectively, trapping them in a glass cage and performing inhumane surgeries on them (implanting a parasite into Hadri's chest and augmenting Palo with pneumatochem-muscular enhancements) while recording his experiment using a recording device. He interrogated Hadri on all of the details of his life, and when he was unable to answer or refused, Singed blasted him with cold sump water. When Hadri tried to empathize with Singed by telling him about his son Locke, Singed told Hadri that he had no family and he begged him for a cure for his illness, but would be reduced to nothing as he wouldn't comply. He then told Hadri to latch onto Palo to join the parasite. When Hadri stood up to his captor, he deemed him uncooperative and turned the water valve to full strength before leaving, intending to flood the lab to drown the two subjects.
Hadri and Palo cooperated to escape the lab, but the parasite attached to Palo as Singed had intended, causing the two subjects to have their minds linked. After being confronted by followers of Viktor, they came face to face with Singed, who tested Hadri to see if his mind was still intact, threatening to shoot them with a tranquilizer gun if they didn't comply. When he was unable to get the results he wanted, Singed believed that they were a failure and provoked them into chasing him, gradually weakening them with his poisonous gas. As they fell down on the verge of death, Hadri recognized the professor as Singed back when he was in Piltover, and Singed told Hadri that he was Thinker Four and he'd fared much better than Thinker Two (implying he'd done similar experiments before). He then walked away, leaving Hadri and Palo to die in despair.
Appearance[]
Not much is known about how Singed looked like when he was young. However, throughout most of his life, he was a tall, lanky, and pale man. He has a permanent facial scar on one side of his face (some depictions show his right side being damaged, while others his left side). Eventually Singed would start wearing additional bandages to hide the facial scars inflicted by 
Warwick.
Personality[]
Singed is a cruel, heartless scientist with no regard for his victims, performing depraved experiments on his test subjects for the belief that they would become superior beings, while subjecting them to physical and mental suffering with no remorse and seeing them as nothing more than lesser creatures or objects to experiment on. He is a perfectionist who doesn't like when people fail his high standards, and feels nothing but disappointment when they die.
Abilities[]
- Chemically Enhanced Physiology: Thanks to countless experiments on himself, Singed posses physical abilities far above that of a normal human.
- Enhanced Durability: Singed can endure much more damage than a normal human. In Arcane, he was blasted with a massive explosion of Shimmer and, although he received some heavy scars, he doesn't to have any kind of loss of function with his physical capabilities.
- Enhanced Immunity: Singed is immune to the effects of many of his toxic poisons, allowing him to freely use them without concern towards his health.
- Enhanced Speed: Singed can run at much faster speeds than that of a normal human.
- Enhanced Strength: Singed is far stronger than a normal human, especially one his age. He is able to carry his massive shield on one hand, massive bottle on his back, and heavy armor without issue, running and attacking with speed and precision.
Relations[]
Warwick[]
| “ | "Once again, scientific progress is stifled by lesser creatures." |
| — Singed, Engineering the Nightmare | |
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As Singed forced Warwick into being a test subject for one of his unethical experiments, it can be assumed that Warwick hates him more than anything. Given that Singed also showed no remorse towards Warwick as he subjected the latter to many brutal procedures, it can also be assumed that he sees Warwick not as a living organism, but as an object to be researched and studied.
Ionia and Noxus[]
Singed helped Noxus invade Ionia by giving them a toxic substance that Noxus used to kill their enemies and raze their land. This would affect many people, including 
Riven, who was scarred from the sight of the substance being used on others, 
Irelia and 
Karma, whose forces were killed by the substance, and 
Master Yi, whose village was razed by the substance.
Hadri Spillwether and Palo[]
Singed saw Hadri and Palo as nothing more than test subjects, showing no empathy toward them as he cruelly experimented on them and disciplining them by blasting them with cold sump water for failing his standards. When Hadri tried to empathize with him, Singed mocked him and told Hadri that he owed him after begging him to cure his illness, but promised that he wouldn't die. Once Hadri stood up to him, Singed began to flood the lab to drown them so he could dispose of them and start over. When they escaped, Singed asked them if they knew him and when he was unable to answer, Singed believed them to be mindless vegetables and deemed the experiment a failure. Once Hadri finally remembered who Singed was, he told him that he'd done better as a Thinker test subject than his second Thinker before he and Palo died.
Read More
Biography
Starring Champion
Mentioned Champion
Alternate Universes
Trivia[]
- Singed's lore shares some similarities with the real-life chemist Fritz Haber. Haber, like Singed, was an unabashed proponent of chemical warfare who created many deadly gasses used on the battlefields of WWI. There are also further similarities in the ethical implications of both their work.
- Being present during the first discovery of hextech, he is most likely over 100 years old. His research helps him prolong his life span significantly and he is now trying to gain immortality.
- Singed's bio quote, "My deadliest dose shall bear my patron's name!" is a reference to a line from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: "My deadliest drug shall bear my patron's name!", referring to Mercury.
- Singed was approached by a Noxian military commander named Emystan to help her break the bitter stalemate of the war in Ionia.
- Singed is responsible for creating the poisons that decimated Riven's warband and Master Yi's Wuju village.
- Seeing the approval of slaughter of the innocent caused by Singed and Emystan also made Quilletta Varn grew more disillusioned by the empire's ambitions, which led to her rebel against the empire and the events of Darius' comic Blood of Noxus.
- Singed is responsible for creating the poisons that decimated
- In Evelynn's pre-rework story The Shadows Beckon, the Vigilnauts that guard Chem-Baron Saito Takeda were augmented by Singed himself.
Change log[]
| Character blurb | |
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| 3 March 2020 (During V10.5) | Added. |
References[]
